New Corner Canyon Principal to “Keep Momentum Going”

Aug 22, 2016 12:31PM
● By Julie Slama

Corner Canyon High School’s first ever principal Mary Bailey was known to support students and teachers alike at numerous school activities. Here she is photographed with CCHS 2015 graduate Alexsys Campbell. — Alexsys Campbell

By
Julie Slama | julie@mycityjournals.com

On June 30, it became
official. Mary Bailey, Corner Canyon High School's first ever principal,
officially retired, leaving many students and faculty saddened with the absence
of the 41-year education veteran and uncertain of the school’s direction.

Darrell
Jensen, who has been principal at Albion Middle in Sandy, was appointed to
succeed Bailey. The current assistant principals will remain in their positions
and Bruce Eschler, currently an intern assistant principal at Corner Canyon
High, will become an assistant principal.

Jensen is
quick to point out things have been successful under his predecessor.

“I’m not a
guy who has to move in and change everything,” Jensen said. “Everything is
running smoothly so I’m just going to keep the momentum going and be supportive
of the programs in place. The first things I’m going to do is get to know the
people, the culture and the community.”

Jensen has
20 years of experience teaching. He has taught in Nebo School District for
eight years, been an assistant principal at both Brighton High School in
Cottonwood Heights and Jordan High School in Sandy for a total of 10 years,
been an administrative intern at Hillcrest High School in Midvale for one year
and spent the past two years as Albion’s principal.

He earned
his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Utah Valley University and
his master’s degree from Brigham Young University in education administration.

“I love
working with the high school students, building relationships with them and
learning what they plan to do — college, work, military, marriage, with what it
all entails. And I plan to be supportive of them learning to balance their
academics with the arts, sports, clubs and everything high school has available
to them,” he said.

Jensen plans
to split his evenings between attending Corner Canyon activities and supporting
his own children’s activities at their high school in Payson, where he lives
with his family on a farm raising cows and horses.

“I’ll try to
do as many things as I can. From everything I’ve heard and read, the students
here are very talented and the community is very supportive,” he said.

That is what many teachers
appreciate about Bailey — attending and being supportive of Corner Canyon
programs and events.

“She’s not only everywhere,
all the time, but she truly cares,” instrumental teacher Randal Clark said.
“She writes on cards and thanks me not just for the great concert, but
specifically what she loved or why this piece was great in the concert. She has
a true gift with people and how she has time to do what all she does — and
never forgets anything — I don’t know.

“The biggest thing about Mary
is that she goes out of her way to help,” she said. “She has 90 million things
going on, but if you need to talk to her, she’s there — whether it’s early
morning or late at night — and she has that amazing smile and willingness to
help — and she comes to all our competitions. She’s just amazing, wonderful.”

Bailey said she didn’t attend every event, but will miss
seeing them perform and compete.

“When I’m
there, kids noticed that I was there — and I appreciate it,” Bailey said. “Just
as I appreciated seeing them compete at the Shakespeare festival as well as
perform on our stage. I went to choir and band concerts, attended football,
basketball, soccer games, debate tournaments and cheer and drill performances. It
was fun. It’s all part of high school and seeing them succeed.”

Bailey
taught at several middle and high schools in the area as well as high school in
Burley, Idaho before becoming assistant principal at Brighton High in
Cottonwood Heights. She worked in Canyons School District’s office before the
opportunity arose to become Corner Canyon’s first principal.

“It was an
exciting opportunity to open a new high school. It’s been a wonderful
opportunity to build it, bring in the people who were excited to create
programs and put together a wonderful school with great staff, students and
community to support it,” she said.

At times,
there were some challenging early moments, such as when deciding the nickname
of the school and national uproar came about when a choice was announced as
“Cougars.”

“We were
called sexist, archaic, out of date and about everything else. I got calls from
across the nation with media as well as from a radio talk show in Germany. We
shook it off later and placed a plastic cougar in the drywall of one of the
walls going up here reminding us that we were the Corner Canyon Cougars, but
not officially,” Bailey said.

Bailey now
will turn her attention to helping her daughter make her October wedding
arrangements and getting to household projects that she has put off. She also
wants to travel to Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

Yet, she has
one last commitment as principal. Earlier this year, Bailey was named Utah High School Principal of the Year, so in
September, she will travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with the nation’s
education leader, Utah senators and members of congress and other top
principals across the country at the national conference. At the conference,
the national principal of the year will be announced.

“As Corner
Canyon’s principal, I’ve had a great experience and did some great things. It’s
hard to leave, but there’s a time for everything and it’s my time. I’m leaving
on a high note,” Bailey said.

Another administrative change
will be at Canyons School District office: Misty
Suarez, who has been Salt Lake City School District’s director of student
services, will become Canyons District’s new director of special education. She
will succeed Robin Collett. Suarez has 16 years of administrative experience,
including six years as the principal of Mount Jordan Middle, and is licensed in
special education.